' W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, iii. p. 388.
ISAIAH 363
life, Jesus Christ Himself is the all-sufficient supply, " my life in death, my all in all."
Our blessed Lord appears to have always the feeling that He has come down into a realm of hungry, famishing souls. You see this in the parable of the Prodigal Son, and that of the Feast or Supper. Hence, that very remarkable discourse in the sixth chapter of John, where He declares Himself as the living Bread that came down from heaven — that a man may eat thereof and not die. " Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him. As the hving Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father : so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me."
See how His promises suit your condition, (a) Are you heavy laden with guilt ? The gospel message is, " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (b) Are you groaning under the power of indwelling sin ? " He giveth power to the faint ; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." (c) Are you striving to obtain salvation by the deeds of the law ? " Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." (d) Are you in temptation ? He has been tempted Himself, and knows how to pity you. He has power over your enemy, and can deliver you with a word. The God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.
^ One of the most accomplished men of his time said, some days before his death, " I have surveyed most of the learning that is among the sons of men, and my study is filled with books and manuscripts on various subjects, yet at this moment I can recol- lect nothing in them all on which I can rest my soul, save one from the sacred Scriptures, which lies much on my spirit. It is this : ' The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world ; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.' " ^
How is it that Christ satisfies us, and puts an end to all dispeace ? Of the streams of the world at which men drink it is said, " Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again :
1 H. W. Pritchara,
364 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Christ satisfies us because His gift is a well of water in the soul itself, because wherever we are, whatever happens to us, the source and centre of our spiritual life cannot be separated from us. This is man's victory and end, when within himself he so has the source of life and joy that he is independent of circumstances, of possessions, of things present and things to come. It is this gift that God offers to us without money and without price.
IT It is related by one who had experienced the horrors of the great African desert, that the thirst which had absorbed all other feelings while it raged, was no sooner slaked, than the feeling of hunger was revived in tenfold violence ; and I scruple not to spiritualise this incident in illustration of the prophet's language. The sensation of relief from undefined anxiety, or from a positive dread of Divine wrath, however exquisite, is not enough to satisfy the soul. The more it receives, the more it feels its own deficien- cies ; and when its faculties have been revived by the assurance of forgiveness, it becomes aware of its own ignorance, and of those chasms which can be filled only with knowledge of the truth. This is the sense of spiritual hunger which succeeds the allaying of spiritual thirst. The soul, having been refreshed, must now be fed. The coohng, cleansing properties of water cannot repair the decaying strength. There must be nutriment, suited to the con- dition of the soul. And it is furnished. Here is milk as well as water.^
ii. The Price paid for it.
The words of the text are a paradox. We are invited to buy, yet without money and without price. But it is a paradox that needs little explanation. The contradiction on the surface is but intended to make emphatic this blessed truth, which I pray may reach your memories and hearts, that the only conditions are a sense of need, and a willingness to take — nothing else, and nothing more. We must recognise our penury, and must abandon self, and put away all ideas of having a finger in our own salvation, and be willing — willing to be obliged to God's unhelped and undeserved love for all.
^ J. A. Alexander, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, p. 339.